Accessories Bicycles Parts Specials Tools Search Teaching Kids To Ride Translations of this article: Belarusian Czech Georgian Latvian Select Language Tweet Like Share Powered by Translate Follow @sheldonbrowncom Polish Portuguese Serbian by Sheldon "Two Wheeler" Brown revised by John Allen Adult Beginners Balance Brakes Draisines ("no-pedal bikes") Patience Safety Equipment Scooters Stabilisers Running With Child Testimonials Traffic Training Wheels Tricycles Undersized Bike Teaching Kids To Ride One of the many tasks parents must undertake is teaching their children to ride bicycles. At every stage of the learning process, there are several possible approaches, and most parents will be unsure how to proceed. This article will try to cover the options and explain when to choose which. This article focuses on only the most basic skills: pedaling, steering and balancing, that make it possible for a child to operate a bicycle. There is much more to teach and to learn about cycling than this, but that is mostly beyond the scope of this particular article. Tricycles For most children, a tricycle is the first step in learning to ride. The most useful tricycles are the smallest ones, like the one shown in the photo. Ideally, a child should get a tricycle even before he or she learns to walk. A tricycle has only two things to teach a child: steering and pedaling. The steering usually comes first, because the child can stand on the back step with one foot and push along with the other. Some children will be able to master this even before learning to walk. Once the basic concept of steering has been learned, the child can start to use the pedals. I believe that tricycles are best suited for indoor use, or use in a level, closed courtyard or driveway. As soon as the child has become proficient in pedaling and steering a tricycle, it is time to move up to a small bike with training wheels. Most 2 1/2 year-olds are ready for a 12"-wheel bike with training wheels. I would not recommend the purchase of a tricycle for a child that old. As the child gets stronger and more confident on a tricycle, their speed potential can become faster than is safe on a tricycle, especially if they ride on surfaces that are not perfectly flat. A tricycle can run away on even a slight grade. Although a bike on training wheels cannot turn any faster than a tricycle, at least it has a brake! Conventional upright tricycles become very dangerous as a child gets taller and stronger, particularly if used where there are even slight hills. Once one of these gets moving faster than walking speed, its high center of gravity and lack of brakes makes it a recipe for disaster. It can't stop without brakes, and it can't turn without flipping over. The other common type of tricycle is the plastic semi-recumbent type, such as the "Big Wheel" (tm). These are not so durable as the older, metal trikes of traditional design, but for an older child, riding on sidewalks and the like, they are considerably safer. Between the low center of gravity and the poor traction of the plastic wheels, they spin out in corners, instead of tipping over. They also usually have a crude brake. Although these are safer for an older child than upright trikes, they only postpone the day when the child will learn to ride a real bike, so a bicycle with training wheels is a better choice. This type of trike is not as easy to handle for a young child just learning to steer and pedal, due to its awkward steering geometry. They have an extremely shallow head angle, which makes the wheel tend to flop to one side or the other too easily. Teaching Balance There are three basic ways to teach a child to balance on two wheels: training wheels, assisted two-wheeling, and un-assisted two wheeling. Each has its advantages, and best results will often be obtained by a mixed approach, adjusted to the child's learning style and the practice area available. Training Wheels (Stabilisers) Most bicycles intended for smaller children come with training wheels. That doesn't mean that training wheels are the only way, nor even the best way to teach a child to ride. Training wheels are potentially the least painful way to learn to ride a bike, but also the slowest. They make the most sense for families who live on very quiet, safe streets without hills. To make good use of training wheels, you need a safe, flat driveway or wide sidewalk or other place where a child can ride with a minimum of supervision. A bike with training wheels can be even more dangerous than a tricycle, because the child is higher up and the base width of the training wheels is fairly narrow. This means that if the bike gets going much faster than a walk, it will topple over if the child tries to turn a corner. Also, if the bike is turning even a little bit, weight is shifted from the rear wheel to the outside training wheel, so the braking power of the rear wheel is greatly reduced. How To Use Training Wheels Most people that use training wheels have them adjusted incorrectly. The bike should always have a little bit of lean. If both training wheels can touch the ground at once, there is little weight on the bicycle's rear wheel. This can reduce traction to zero. On uneven ground, the child may get stuck because the wheel spins. Even worse, the brake may become useless. When the bike is new, there should be only a small amount of tilt from one side to the other. After the child has become accustomed to pedaling, steering and braking, the training wheels should be raised slightly, a bit at a time. It is probably better to do this without telling the child, who may object. The bike will become more and more tippy, and the child will learn to balance automatically with practice. As the child becomes more adept, the bike will spend more and more time with both training wheels off the ground. The day will come when it is obvious that the training wheels are no longer doing anything, and they can be removed. If the training wheels are left set on their lowest position, the bike is in effect an oversized tricycle, and some kids spend two or three years on training wheels as a result. This is not only a waste of their time, it is really quite dangerous as they learn to ride faster and faster, because of the poor cornering and braking of a training- wheel equipped bike. Eventually, the child will become heavy enough to bend the training wheel struts upward, making the bike suitably tippy. Then they will finally learn to balance. If a child has been using training wheels for more than two or three years, it is time to try something else. Putting training wheels on a 20" bike is usually a mistake, unless the child has a specific physical or mental disability. The training-wheel approach works best for families who live on very quiet streets or have large driveways, or live near parks or other areas where the child may be left pretty much unattended. For most families, this will not be the case, and a parent will need to accompany the child. In this case, the "running-with-the-child" approach makes more sense, since children learn faster this way. HOT Shop & Save: Electric Bikes Rad Power Bikes Running With The Child The traditional way to teach cycling, by running along holding the child up, is still the fastest and best if an undersized bike is not available. The parent should hold the child by the shoulders and run along behind. It is important that the parent not hold the handlebars-the child cannot learn the feel of balancing if the parent is taking control of the bike. If the parent holds onto the saddle or any other part of the bike, the child will not necessarily realize if they are leaning a bit to one side or the other, because the parent will be correcting for them. Instead, hold the child by the shoulders, so that as they lean to the side, they will feel the side pressure, and can learn to reduce it by turning into the lean. This should be done in a wide flat space, such as an empty parking lot. The parent should not make any attempt to steer the child, just let the bike go where it will. This is not much fun for the parent, especially if the parent is tall and has to lean over to reach the child's shoulders-sore back time! The parent will also have to be very careful not to bang into the bike or trip over it when the little creep swerves or puts on the brakes unexpectedly, but this approach is the fastest and most parent- involved way to teach basic balancing. If running along holding the child by the shoulders is too uncomfortable, some parents like to make a handle out of a stick of some sort, typically wedged between the seat stays and lashed to the back of the saddle. This doesn't give as good feedback to the child, but it does work. There are also commercial products that amount to the same thing, but I don't generally recommend them. A company called Wallaby Kids makes a special vest/handle that serves this purpose, with a handle above the child's shoulder blades.